The Pinnacle Warrior

Without any third party in the background bringing packs of gnolls to ambush them, the five delvers shredded through several hundred gnolls that day. Even with so little downtime, Astrid found herself having to pull Benedict out of episodes of panic that made him lose his focus on the things that were right in front of him. When he was left to his own devices, he could be found spiraling—his eyes flicked everywhere, his shoulders tensed, and his brow flecked with sweat, despite not having been exerting himself. 

Even so, Astrid remained focused. At least, as focused as she could be. Several times, as she smashed her hammer or shield into a gnoll’s arm, she would see flashes of the Archer laying crumpled before her, the echoes of her screams and the smell of her flesh as it burned and acid. Yes, Astrid could understand Benedict‘s hesitance and distraction. Luckily enough, whenever he and Felix were focused, they were productive and effective, even more today than before. The few times that the party had sustained wounds, Benedict’s Song of Healing took care of every notable wound in just a few minutes, leaving only soreness in its wake. Once, though, they ran into a shaman irregular, one that somehow shrugged off every debuff that was applied to it. With a speed that surpassed any of the party members, it buried its knife deep in Felix‘s stomach. Only able to do so at the expense of taking a crippling blow from Astrid, the shaman was quickly killed, but the party had panicked, fearing that their frontliner would die.

To Astrid, Muti, and Skandr’s amazement, Benedict bent over, whistled through his cupped hands, and while he continued to do so, leaned over the wound as he pressed his hands into the wound. Astrid watched as the blood flow quickly staunched and slowed until there was nothing left, nothing but pink scar tissue. Benedict then smirked, his usual annoying self-confidence not nearly so annoying as he sagged back and explained, “I can focus on just Song of Healing and use Doubletalk to use the Skill doubly. It’s pretty exhausting to do so though… Basically emptied my mana.”

“Exhaustion is part of delving!“ Muti had declared as she clapped the Bard on the shoulder. “If you do not return home tired at the end of the day, you have not delved. You have shed… Felix has shed blood, and you have ensured that it becomes a scar, not a grave. That counts as shedding blood, and you are good. For a magic boy.”

“Well then, thank you, my lady,“ Benedict bowed in his usual stately way as he pulled his hat from his head, “but I am of the opinion that saving a life is greater than shedding blood.“

“Typical Human foolishness.“ Muti’s reply was not colored by bitterness as her words sometimes were. Instead, there was a softness to her smile, and she again wrapped her arm around Benedict. At least, at first Astrid believed it was tender, but she quickly realized that instead of smacking the Bard as she usually did, the Rogue was instead squeezing him so tight that Astrid thought she might hear a couple ribs cracking. 

Before Benedict could grunt and cry out for mercy, Astrid reached out and pulled her companion‘s arm from around the poor man. Muti had a smirk that was more mischievous than proud as she looked over at Benedict. He raised both hands in a conciliatory gesture, saying, “I get it, I’ll stop being quite so proud of myself. You’re on the front lines, you’re getting bloody, and I’m just a weak Bard who stands in the back… You know, the Bard that’s keeping you alive and making sure you don’t have to pay three gold a week on healing potions.”

Muti raised a hand, pointing her finger at Benedict, but she couldn’t help but grin widely as she said, instead of her typical comeback, “You have teeth. They will serve you well.”

“Well, I need to eat, so I certainly hope so. We’re not done for the day yet, are we?”

All four of the other party members turned to Astrid as Benedict changed the subject, and the Warrior smiled, allowing the warmth of the feeling of basking in companionable bickering while delving to wash over her. Doing so was just what she needed to melt away the icy terror of what they’d experienced just the day before. She threw her hands wide open as she spoke.

“Of course! Do you think these mere 150 gnolls are enough for me? We better hit 300 by the end of the day, because if not, I’m not letting any of you sleep in beds!”

“Well, I would complain about how you’re not really in charge,” Skandr said with a shrug and a grin, “but I wanna see if we can beat 300 too. My mana’s in good enough shape that I can keep moving, how about you, Benedict?”

“I’m really low, but as long as these three ruffians up here decide to stop being quite so reckless, I think we can probably get something sorted out. Before too long. So long as I can get a little break…? Please?”

***

“The sun has disappeared, and I believe that the moon will weep at our stance.“ Muti’s particular turn of phrase was something that Astrid had never heard, but she figured she could understand the gist of what the Barbarian was trying to say. After all, the language Muti grew up speaking was different from the rest, and she was generally good at understanding the Human’s usual turns of phrase.

“Well, that’s 300, and I think you’re right that we’ve been at this for long enough.” Astrid fought to keep the words intelligible as she rolled her shoulders and wiped the head of her hammer through the nearby fields to clean them of blood and viscera, the burn of her sore muscles aching through her entire being.“That’s at least 1000 experience apiece, with those of us getting the kills a bit higher, right?”

“Speak for yourself,“ Felix said with a grin, “I got over 1100, so I’m making some damn good progress.”

“And I got about the same.” Benedict said with a dramatic flourish and bow. “That means I’m about halfway to level 8.“

“Same here.” Felix echoed

“Well, that’s good to hear. Just a couple more days, and you’ll be level 8 and, at that point, you’ll have higher attributes than any of the gnolls except for irregulars and Bosses, when we eventually get down there.“ Astrid had mostly gotten her breathing under control as she said as much, no longer panting at all. “I think when you two hit level 8 we’ll hit the 4th floor, and when you get to 9, we’ll go down to the fifth floor and challenge the Boss. Unless there’s any complaints?“

“Complainers will be given further training opportunities.“ Muti spoke before anyone else could, her eyes squinting as she looked at the other three delvers.

“As fun as it sounds to have more opportunities to throw Lightning Bolts at Felix, I’m happy with getting into the Boss floor, seeing what we can get from clearing this branch of the Dungeon and maybe make some even better money. There’s been so many irregulars recently that I wonder if we’ll eventually have the opportunity to fight an irregular Boss. I would be nervous about that, but with you guys…“ Skandr shrugged, smiling and nodding at the other delvers in their party.

“Can I be at least level 10 before I have to fight an irregular Boss?“ Benedict moaned, his dramatic face only slightly playful. “I don’t know a whole lot about this one, but I do know it’s another minion style Boss, so even if Felix catches all of their attention, we’ll be in danger here on the backline.”

“I only have experience with minion style Bosses,” Astrid answered with a shrug, “and I did that all by myself. Shouldn’t be too bad to do it again.”

“Yes, you’re very impressive, and we all—-“ Benedict started to retort in his usual blasé fashion, but then he squinted and looked at her before stepping closer and looking up into her face with disbelief painted all over his own. “You came here at level 6. And you’d solo delved a Dungeon branch before you got here.”

He made it more of a statement than a question, and when Astrid started to shrug in answer, he threw both hands in the air before pointing his finger up in her face while he shouted, “You’re a monster! I am merely a human, and I refuse to be held to your standards. I demand to be shown the same amount of preference that you are!”

Astrid giggled as she put both hands in the air and admitted to the rest of her party, “Yes, that’s something that I did. As an explanation, the Dungeon branch was entirely wargs, and the Boss was one level 6 with two level 5s. If you take out the level 6 pretty quick, it wouldn’t be able to use its Skill, and then it was just the same as fighting one of the other packs of wargs.”

“Oh, yes, of course. That makes everything all better. Right? I mean, anybody can do that, right?” Felix shook his head while he chuckled. “No, not anybody can do that! You’re far and away the best active delver that I’ve ever come in contact with, everybody here included, and I don’t know why you think you can talk like this and not make me feel like I’m losing my mind.”

“Felix, you’re a baby.“ Benedict shook his head as he mocked his companion, though he did throw his arm around the slightly taller man as he said as much.“I do agree with you though. Astrid here is something else entirely.“

Astrid felt her blood flushing and filling her face, but she could tell by her companions’ tones and postures that, while they were quite surprised to hear what she was saying, there was no judgment or unhappiness with her. Instead, they were praising her, and she felt that same warm glow in her face flood into the rest of her body in pride as she smiled.

“I will clear a Dungeon myself! A branch larger than hers!“ Muti’s words were not at all playful, competitive determination filling her whole body as she flexed both arms and declared her intent.

“I guess if you want to, you can go ahead and do that at some point,” Skandr calmed her, “but for now, let’s just focus on getting our whole party to higher levels. You know, so more ambushers don’t come for us in the middle of the night?”

Muti growled under her breath, just the same way that she still did to people she passed in the street, but it was more of a promise than a threat. Fortunately, her actions served to cut through the tension that fell over the party like a blanket at Skandr’s words. How Astrid could understand that this particular growl of Muti’s was a promise, she did not understand. However, the bestial Barbarian woman’s antics were becoming more and more understandable to Astrid as the months continued to go by. She thought it all the time, but every time she thought that her understanding of the Barbarian’s ways wouldn’t be able to progress any further, she found that she better understood the way Muti’s mind worked.

“We are not gonna focus on getting those levels… today, right? Like, any more than we already have?“ Felix was, surprisingly, the one to ask. Then, as soon as she thought that it was surprising, Astrid thought about what the Bodyguard had gone through today. Though the deep puncture in his gut had been the most pressing concern, he’d also been their frontliner through well over 20 combats, probably more like 30, and all that in the space of eight hours. Throughout every single fight, he’d been on the front lines, fighting and pushing himself harder than anyone else, taking superficial hits on every contact with the enemy.

“No, we’re done for today. Just gotta get ourselves out of here and back to Kznietch. The only annoying thing is gonna be this.” Astrid said the last bit as she kicked the corpse of the shaman irregular that they’d been dragging along with them into every fight. She was already totally coated in the beast’s blood, having been the primary carrier of the corpse through the past three or four hours since they’d run into it.

“Oh, Duchess be praised.“ Felix said as he pulled his helmet back a little and swiped at his sweat stained forehead. “I was about to suggest that Skandr take over as the frontliner for me. After all, he’s doing fine, right?”

“You were gonna do what to me?”

“I approve!”

Skandr and Muti’s replies mixed together as Felix smiled and pulled his helmet back down over his forehead.

“All right, that’s enough.“ Astrid said, laughing as she waved her hands to the air. “On an unrelated, but great note, with our earnings from today, the debt will be totally paid off. So, we’ll then pay you back, Felix, and start giving Benedict a double share.“

Muti turned her attention to the Bard, her accepting, generous tone shifting away and returning back to disapprovingly grumbling about cowardly magic boys, and they need to steal from their companions. It wasn’t more than five seconds before Benedict cut her off, laughing as he said, “I don’t think that’s necessary. Honestly, I think that it might be better for us as a whole if we just pool all of our funds in general. You know, just pay for lodging and food from communal shares and give a small share to each person individually, just so we can save at least half our total earnings. I don’t want to be cagey about it, so if you’ll have me, I’ll delve with you at least until Bronze is done. If we’re all keeping up with each other at that point, I’ll stick with you past that.”

“I’m with him on that.” Felix said, making an involuntary shiver of happiness go through Astrid.

“You’re sure?“ Astrid asked, her voice quiet. “I recognize that you have us two giant walking problems over here that might be more trouble than we’re worth. I mean, Kznietch is used to us, and I’m not a Barbarian, but with the war back on, we’ll be trouble everywhere we go. I don’t think that I’ll be able to promise that I don’t lose my temper—”

“Two women who will fight and kill to keep me safe?“ Benedict scoffed, cutting off Astrid’s rambling. “Oh no, whatever will I do? Be safe and successful? What a nightmare!“

“Are you just trying to get rid of us?“ Felix asked as he walked up and slugged Astrid in the shoulder. “You’re gonna have to try harder than that to convince me to give up a party that’ll get me to Level 11 in something like two months while making money and possibly buying me new equipment.”

Astrid allowed herself to laugh as she went to swipe at her eyes, realizing she still had her helmet on, and instead stepped forward and pulled both men into a quick hug.

“Thank you. Really, I don’t know how to not be sappy about it, so I guess I’ll just be sappy. I really appreciate you, and if you need help, just let me know.“

“And I appreciate having two at least partially sane guys around here.“ Skandr added as Astrid released the hug. “I mean, you’re still choosing to stick around and fight alongside us, so you’re not all there, but at least you’ve got good enough brains that you’re able to reason out the ‘why’ you’re sticking around.“

“Yeah, you’re the crazy one here.“ Felix grinned back. “You’re also sticking around for all this and you haven’t explained why.“

“And I don’t have to! After all, I’m one of the original three!“ All five, Muti included, continued to joke around as they made their way out of the Dungeon, Astrid carrying the irregular’s corpse over her shoulders as she went.